July 3, 2005

It's da Wollif

The next event was a $5000 No-Limit Hold 'Em tourney that drew an amazing 466 players. I got table 18, seat 10, and found a nice table with few faces I recognized: Paul Wolfe, with whom I had played quite a bit on line, on my right in seat nine, and Liz Lieu, a good cash-game player who had cashed in a previous event this year, in seat two. There were some nutty players at the table but neither Paul nor I could get their chips. As they busted, the table got tougher: Chip Jett came in on my left in seat one; David Plastik in seat five; and John "Tipper" Stolzman in seat six. A guy named Alex, whose nickname was "The Dolphin," came into seat seven with a large crystal dolphin to use as a card protector. I commented on it and he sadly pointed out, "It's missing the…the…" "Dorsal fin?" I asked. "Yes," he said. I couldn't resist teasing someone whose nickname was "The Dolphin," so every time he raised, I asked some question like, "You know, dolphins aren't really that scary, are they?" or "Is a dolphin a fish or a mammal?" Little did he know than when he answered, I was seeing into his soul. I was down to 4075 at the break from my starting 5000.

Paul busted and a new player came into seat nine. He made a late-position raise and I found Ace-Queen offsuit on the button. Normally I would push all in here but with Chip Jett and Liz Lieu on the blinds I decided to just call and hope one of them would try the "squeeze play." Sure enough, Liz made it 2500. Seat nine folded and I moved all in. She had fallen into my trap! Unfortunately she had pocket Kings. The original raiser also had Ace-Queen so I was looking for one of the remaining two Aces and they didn't come so I was out of the contest 220th, cold-decked again.

Dinner was at Craftsteak with Avi "Two Cokes" Freedman. We had Marvin, the best waiter in the world, serving us so a bad meal was impossible. The Kobe Flatiron was superb as always and the peas and corn were bursting with flavor. Avi had two Diet Cokes and I had the yummy 2002 Matallena Ribera del Duero.

I flew home for a couple days to recharge. I planned to play a couple more events before the Big Dance.